Google Nexus 5 Review: A Fast, Affordable Phone With LTE For All

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There's a new flagship smartphone in town. The LG-made Nexus 5 offers a fast Snapdragon platform, LTE for all markets, a 5” 1080p display, and Android 4.4 “KitKat”. Best of all, the 16 GB model sells for just $350 off-contract. Is it too good to be true?

Results: Battery Testing

Our battery life metric currently consists of one test: video playback. We chose this because it's one of the most commonly cited statistics by device manufacturers, and is relatively easy to check. The video drain is simply the Sintel 3D animated trailer looped endlessly in MXPlayer with the phone's display calibrated to a brightness of 200 nits.

Pretty darned impressive. This Nexus 5 gets a little over eight hours of continuous playback, and that last 15% held on for over one-eighth of that time. It was nail-biting. Compared to its nearest relative, the LG G2, which has a larger battery (3000 mAh versus the Nexus 5's 2300 mAh), that's a solid result, and it beats out the other devices in our comparison. This is even more impressive when you consider that EVGA's Tegra Note tablet has extended power-saving in the form of Prism, a lower-resolution display, and a much much larger 4100 mAh battery. In terms of daily usage, we've managed to go a full day of normal use (sans gaming) without a recharge. Once you add gaming to that equation the battery drains a lot faster.

Dorian Black
54 Comments Comment from the forums
  • guvnaguy
    Nice review. I think the whole $600-700 price for an off-contract phone is pretty much theft anyway, when the phones cost <$300 to make. Kudos, Google.
    Reply
  • MoulaZX
    The Nexus 5 is extremely susceptible to thermal throttling which this article seems to gloss over or entirely miss.

    Yes PVS scores do indicate something. They indicate the efficiency of a chip at a given frequency. The lower PVS numbers will heat up faster, and thus be at the optimal 2.23Ghz frequency less often, thus giving the perceived impression of being significantly slower.

    I have a Nexus 5 myself, same PVS scoring (1). Running Antutu in my hand, and I'll score 22,000 - 23,000. However, out of curiosity, I rest the phone on an AC vent for 15 minutes, started the Antutu benchmark while leaving it there, and managed to score 29,500. All results easily and consistently repeatable. And my phone has never been unlocked/flashed. 100% Factory ROM, 4.4.2.

    The issue purely heavy thermal throttling under heavy sustained loads.

    In day to day operations though, it is absolutely flawless, and felt ever so slightly snappier then my previous HTC One (M7). Still incredibly happy with this device, and the only one I have never felt the need to unlock and flash silly. My only gripe was Camera issues, but the 4.4.2 update resolved those problems.
    Reply
  • MoulaZX
    Duplicate post. Disregard.
    Reply
  • shahrooz
    I just bought mine wainting for it to arrive xD
    Reply
  • beetlejuicegr
    So a friend bought Nexus 5 and i bought his nexus 4 for me. Really happy with it even if its a last year's mobile. Economy crisis in Greece just won't give me space to buy Nexus 5 :P. Nexus phones are always on the the top list in quality and especially on price/quality mark. It is just that the way google sells them in Europe that is incompatible with the mentality of mobile buyers here. I bet my right thumb :P that if they had few actual shops inside shopping centers in Europe that they would sell like crazy. Now that i think about it, they know it, they just let other mobile companies for this, for android dominance perhaps? Just like what IBM did with PC and DoS? All were awed to see my Nexus One just when it was released few years ago, which i still have and still works fine, i doubt if an iphone or any 600+ $/euro mobile can survive that long right?
    Reply
  • beetlejuicegr
    Oh and to add, this heating throttling might be annoying if it is used on a warm country like Greece i guess? Can the article elaborate on that? (room temperatures vs performance)
    Reply
  • davidjan
    Great phone. N4 doesn't support OTG. But N5 supports. So can use Meenova MicroSD reader to add its storage: http://goo.gl/2iJ6gf
    Reply
  • cypeq
    I'd love to get 'USA price' on this devices... it is 450 Euro here
    Reply
  • clownbaby
    I finally pulled the trigger on a Nexus 5 and am upgrading my trusty old GNex. The unpolluted android system is by far the most underrated aspect of the Nexus devices. Paired with a crazy enthusiastic development community, Google offers a device experience that can't be had for any price by other manufacturers. To all of this, top end quick hardware is just icing on the cake. I would take a Nexus device with half the performance of an Iphone or Galaxy 4 just for the software environment.
    Reply
  • yasamoka
    The LG G2 does not have a microSD slot. Only the Note 3 does out of the 3 handsets mentioned in the article.
    Reply